We have wanted to begin IM reference for over a year at least. One of the cool things about being the Digital Branch Manager at this library is that the library as a whole is excited about new ways to reach out to customers, and doesn’t shy away from all this new-fangled technology stuff (translation=everything I do).

Our Adult Services Department actually came to me and asked if they could start IM – they even had a plan in place to use the Meebo Me widget, so they could get everything up-and-running quickly (we’re also in the process of installing Trillian on all staff computers). Basically, all I had to do was say “go for it.”

So far, the Meebo Me widget is working out well. The things we’re working through are more procedural issues, like what to do when reference staff receive a phone call and an IM question at the same time (ie., do we go into away mode or just quickly type “hold”?).

Anyways, the mobile version of ebuddy works ok. The screenshot to the right shows me chatting with the infamous LibrarianInBlack. The chat functions are pretty easy to figure out… but I quickly noticed one huge drawback: I had to hit the reload link to see the conversation! I could type my message easily enough and hit the Sned button… but then nothing would happen after that. But when I hit the Reload link, then I’d see that the good LIB had been chatting back…